Claire Cox - Tourism Ireland, USA

Work Abroad 2023/24

"The American Dream is very much alive."

Memorable moments

New York City really is a thing of its own and offered too many memorable moments for me to explain. Some of my favourites came in the form of the opportunities that I was granted - for example working in the publicity department of Tourism Ireland I got to attend events such as those held in the Irish Consulate who were on the same building floor as our own office.

At these events I got to meet and network with powerful political figures such as Michael Martin. I also got to attend media events such as the premiere of an Irish Wish - Lindsay Lohan being a handful of meters in front of me during it really was a pinch me moment. I got to work on events such as our marketing plans launch which took place in The Lotte Palace Hotel (for everyone that doesn't know that's the hotel that Gossip Girl is set in - another HUGE pinch me moment).

My mobility experience also allowed me to travel even further for work - in January I got to escape the New York winter to Florida for a week as I was working at the PGA Merchandise show!

Learning about a different culture

While New York is more fast paced than back at home (also has a lot more people and a lot more skyrises), surprisingly I found that there were a lot of similarities.

For example, while people may seem a bit more cold on the surface than people at home, they're always up for helping others out when needed. The people here are also so proud of their culture and it comes across in all the little neighbourhoods that make up Manhattan as a whole, for example both Little Italy and Chinatown have some of the best food I have ever tasted.

New York also has such a bustling Irish scene with the amount of emigration and you can see how that has had a huge impact on the culture as a whole - for example NYC has the biggest St. Patrick's day in the world following Dublin.

Challenges and how to deal with them

New York is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the world - this posed significant problems when finding housing, especially when coming from overseas when you have no credit scores or in country guarantors. I would say to anyone to make the most of the Go Global services offered by the university and your study advisors - without their help I wouldn't have known about applying for the Santander Scholarships or Turing Scheme, both which helped me out immensely, especially with initial moving costs.

Home sickness is always going to be a problem too when you move away, I was lucky to combat this as I was constantly surrounded with Irish people through work and had amazing support networks back at home who I was able to check in with. If you move to a different place I would say immerse yourself in the culture, find new hobbies and keep busy - plus there's always someone from home a lot closer than you would think.

Making friends while abroad

Making friends anywhere in your early 20s can be very daunting, especially when your network of friends from back at home are made up of people who you met at 12 or younger.

I made new friends by joining Facebook group chats for New York. The amount of girls who reached out to me honestly blew my mind and really settled my nerves about trying to find my people - I think it's easy to forget that so many people similar to us are in the exact same boat.

Travelling and sightseeing

With work I was mostly based in New York City as it is such a huge place for media and events, however I got to travel to Florida for a week as I was representing Tourism Ireland at the PGA Show in Orlando!

Outside of work I got to travel to places such as Nashville which really is a place of its own - between the music and the atmosphere, which is absolutely electric. I would recommend for anyone to visit if they get the opportunity. To my surprise also it's actually the twin city to Belfast which warmed my heart a little.

Advice

DO IT! I am a firm believer that the best growth you can have as a person comes when you finally take the step out of your comfort zone.

I feel like back at home you can get so used to being in the same routine which is comfortable and safe (which for many is more than enough and that is completely okay too) but for myself, I knew that somewhere I had a drive to go out and experience something different!

I feel like if you're similar to me in that way, then you should really look into doing an abroad programme, even if it's a short-term opportunity. I started off by doing Camp America to see how I would feel being away from home and I was only away for 2 months.